August has been painful outside of the U.S. too -- and particularly for emerging markets. India's Sensex and Mexico's Bolsa both lost nearly 4% in August. Brazil's Bovespa index moved up nearly 4% but trading has been extremely volatile. The Fed tapering talk has caused foreign investors to flee emerging markets.

Japan's Nikkei index and Britain's FTSE index are both down roughly 2% in August.

China has been a rare bright spot on the global landscape. The Shanghai Composite was up 5% in August, while the tech-heavy Shenzhen index (kind of like China's Nasdaq) rose nearly 6%.